Everyday Canvas

Art not taking sides? Or maybe it does!

Prompt: “Art is amoral, whether we accept this or not; it does not take sides. The finest fictions are cold at heart.” John Banville
What are your thoughts on this quote?

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I have difficulty with this quote; that is why I asked about it to other friends. The word amoral means, “lacking a moral sense; unconcerned with the rightness or wrongness of something.”

As far as the word amoral is concerned, I can accept that. One can write a fiction piece about a stage in an immoral person’s life or one can write about the doomsday for the planet. This doesn’t mean the writer accepts immorality or wishes the worst possible outcome on the people and the planet.

Still, the “cold at heart” phrase throws me off. I believe good writing should evoke some emotion in the reader; although this can be done by showing the worst things to elicit fear or empathy, it can also be done by elevating the good. But then, this is where I have a problem with my writing. I need to like my main characters. Then, because I like them, I tend to take it easy on them. In the same vein, I just finished reading a suspense story, Framed by James Scott Bell, where the author took no pity on his protagonist, until the end of the novel. One can learn so much from other writers and the ways they treat their characters, but I digress.

Fact is, how can one not take sides? I find a slant in just about every work I read, even if that slant is not openly mentioned or shown. Take any prize-winning work; Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See just came to mind, which won the Pulitzer. Such a novel can show the atrocities or the negatives realistically, but it is still on the side of the positive. So, where’s the cold heart in that? I have to believe the finest fiction has to have the warmest heart, although that heart may be concealed expertly.